Art Industry News: This Tech CEO Thinks France Should Sell the Mona Lisa to Pay for Coronavirus Relief + Other Stories

Art Industry News is a daily digest of the most
consequential developments coming out of the art world and art
market. Here’s what you need to know on this Tuesday, May
19.

NEED-TO-READ

A New Online Database
Tracks Looted Beninese Art – A new project plans to
virtually reunite the roughly 4,000 artifacts often referred to as
the Benin Bronzes that were looted from the West African nation by
the British. Hamburg’s Museum Am Rothenbaum (MARKK) is behind the
database, called Digital Benin, which seeks to track how the corpus
was divided up and spread around the globe. So far, 17 museums in
Europe and Nigeria—including the British Museum and the
Ethnological Museum of Berlin—have agreed to share data.
(Wall Street
Journal) 

Lawyer Accuses the
Whitney of Smear Campaign Against Kanders – The
lawyer Neal Sher is calling on US authorities to strip the Whitney
Museum of American Art of its tax-exempt status due to its handling
of protests that led to the resignation of Warren Kanders from its
board last year. Sher, who was a war criminal prosecutor in the
1980s and ’90s, contends that the Whitney’s leadership
“orchestrated and acquiesced in a concerted smear campaign” against
Kanders and capitulated to unlawful conduct by pushing him to
resign. Sher said he was writing to the IRS “on behalf of
contributors to and former officials,” but is acting independently.
Over the weekend, he issued another letter airing his grievances to
seven of the museum’s trustees. (Financial Times)

Tech CEO Says France Should Sell the Mona Lisa
– The founder of the tech company Fabernovel has a
wild idea for how France can offset its losses from the shutdown:
sell the Mona Lisa! “The price has to be insane for the operation
to make sense,” Stephane Distinguin said in a recent
interview. “I estimate that it would take no less than €50 billion
to acquire the Mona Lisa.” Further promoting the idea that tech
CEOs believe bitcoin can solve any problem, Distinguin added
that if an outright sale was not possible, perhaps the painting
could be “tokenized” through crypto-currency, allowing nations the
world over to share the painting through “a big global
subscription.” (Independent)

Artists Urge Governments to Impose an Arms Embargo on
Israel – Shepard Fairey, Antony Gormley, Lawrence Abu
Hamdan, and Tai Shani are among 350 arts figures who are calling on
international governments to impose an arms embargo on Israel. The
letter warns that COVID-19 could pose a fatal threat to Gaza and
that pressure should be applied to the Israeli government to
increase testing and offer improved medical care amid a shortage of
proper equipment. “What happens in Gaza is a test for the
conscience of humanity,” the open letter says. “We may be staying
at home, but our ethical responsibility shouldn’t.” (Hyperallergic)

ART MARKET

Sotheby’s Impressionist
and Modern Day Sale Brings in $9.9 Million – On the
heels of a record-setting online
contemporary day sale that generated $13.7 million, the first
edition of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern online day sale
achieved a total of $9.9 million. Highlights included Giorgio
Morandi’s Natura Morta (1951), which sold for $1.58
million, and Edgar Degas’s small-scale 1876 portrait, Bust du
jeune femme presque nue, which sold above estimate
for $596,000. (Art Market Monitor)

French Auction Houses
Authorized to Reopen – French auction houses are permitted
to reopen—but they will not be as packed as before. Visitors
will be required to keep four square meters apart on
the premises. (Journal des Arts)

COMINGS & GOINGS

Italian Museums Resume Operations – Italian museums begin to reopen this week after
the culture minister Dario Franceschini gave them the go-ahead on
Saturday evening. Rome’s Capitoline Museums and the Castello di
Rivoli are opening today, but Florence’s civic museums will have to
wait for a more substantial bailout to make up for lost revenue,
despite a €55 billion national spending package from the government
to help relaunch the economy. (TAN)

Italian Designer Nanda Vigo Dies – The artist, designer, and architect, who became
known in the 1960s for her artistic practice influenced by the Zero
group, has died at age 83. Her glass and-aluminum sculptures called
“Chronotops,” which were illuminated with neon light, sought to
exact sensory experiences from the viewer. (Artforum)

Tate Announces New Appointments – Tate has appointed Neil McConnon as its new
director of international partnerships and Katherine Montague as
director of people. Previously, McConnon was head of international
enterprises at the Barbican, and Montague has led HR at the Royal
Academy of Arts. (Artforum)

Finnish National Gallery Gets a Reopening Date
– The Ateneum Art Museum in
Helsinki will reopen to the public on June 2. The museum will
debut a new exhibition, “Inspiration—Contemporary Art & Classics,”
a group show of Finnish and international artists who respond to
European Old Masters in their work. (Press release)

FOR ART’S SAKE

Sharjah Art Foundation Awards 10 Artist Grants –
The Sharjah Art Foundation has
awarded its “Production Programme” grants to 10 artists, who will
receive a combined $200,000 to support the realization of proposed
projects selected from an international open call. The 2020
grantees are: Jumana Emil Abboud, Mohamed Abdelkarim, Noor
Abuarafeh, Basma al-Sharif, Abdessamad El Montassir, Köken Ergun,
Pak Khawateen Painting Club, Moad Musbahi, Philip Rizk, and
Subversive Film. (Press
release)

Julia Stoschek Puts Her Video Art Collection Online –
The billionaire art collector, who
has recently threatened
to pull her collection from its outpost in Berlin, is
making sure her holdings will remain publicly accessible no matter
what—virtually, at least. She has just made her video art collection,
which includes works by Wolfgang Tillmans, Barbara Hammer, and
Cao Fei, available for free
online. (ARTnews)

Creatives Launch Prints for Ethiopia to Benefit Temsalet
Kitchen – Ethiopian artists and
photographers have launched a new initiative called Prints for
Ethiopia to help raise funds for humanitarian and COVID-19 relief.
The proceeds from the sale will go to an Addis Ababa-based social
enterprise that feeds homeless kids and families, Temsalet Kitchen.
(Hypebeast)

The post Art Industry News: This Tech CEO Thinks France
Should Sell the Mona Lisa to Pay for Coronavirus Relief + Other
Stories appeared first on artnet News.